One Sunny Day Long Ago

 

     It was a sleepy hot day on the riverbank. One of those days when the heat lay on the land heavy and drowsy. Even the birds were sleeping. 

    This One was being punished again. The Old One had sent him out alone. She was angry again.
    There was nothing to eat but what he could pick or catch raw, and it was just about too much trouble to bother with. He was done chewing grass seeds for now.
    This One was naked. He sat in the shade of one of those smallish deciduous trees that likes to grow on riverbanks, down in a bit of a depression in the landscape. We might call it a birch tree. He wasn’t sleepy. He was feeling rejected and maybe somewhat petulant.
    He was 13 years old. Nearly a man. He was a bit over five feet tall and weighed maybe 115 pounds.
    He watched various objects slowly float down the surface of the smooth little river. A stick floated downstream as he watched. A curled leaf sailed downstream. A pair of ducks followed after, swimming but going with the flow.
    This One jumped to his feet, looking around for a handy thing to throw at the ducks, a kill of any kind would make him more popular back with the Others. Ah, there was a nice handy dry branch. He threw it as hard as he could right at the ducks, who escaped unharmed, though flustered.
    However, his stick joined the other floating objects. It didn’t sink. It just wafted along downstream with the current.
    Now, while he was watching, he conceived of a question, just an errant thought, since he was doing nothing else and was stuck out here. He looked around himself for something larger to throw into the water. He rejected several candidates as too small to be interesting.
    He decided to look further. Walking along the river he found a tree trunk with most of its branches broken off. Some of its length was already in the water of the river. It wouldn’t be hard to shove it the rest of the way in, he thought. He began to imagine something which he had never considered before, nor heard about either.
    With all the power in his hard-bitten little body he shoved on the dead tree. It moved! He shoved again. It moved further. At last, it was just about free and starting to float free of the bank.
    This One jumped from the mud of the riverbank onto dead tree, giving it a couple of final shoves by kicking away from the muddy bank. Now, this tree trunk did not roll over because it was stabilized in the water by its remaining branches. It moved out into the center of the stream where the current was stronger and with its strange cargo aboard sailed grandly downstream.
    No one has ever been more pleased with himself than This One. He was filled with thoughts of easy travel. No endless walking and walking and walking just to move camp! Oh, then he thought of the Others briefly before he floated quite a long way away.
    Being a young fellow he didn’t mind at all. He just went with it. For a couple of hours his tree sailed along unhindered.
    At some point the river took a sharp bend and he encountered some mild rapids. His tree was finally caught on the gravel bottom. It came to rest. He climbed off and stood on the bank again. His mind was still full of the marvelousness of his trip downriver. But now he was getting truly hungry. Fasting was not unknown to him, but he didn’t enjoy it.
    Looking down at him from further up the embankment was a girl. That One stood among the tall grass and flowers. She did not run or cry out. She was like him, almost grown, but equally slight in stature. She was adorned with a sort of basic gown made of rabbit skins sewn together. Her brown hair was braided into two long plaits. Her eyes were light blue. 

    He went to her.